☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

t w e l v e

~ 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚 ~

Amara gasped for breath as the sopping wet towel was peeled away from her face. She coughed violently and tried to blink away the water from her eyes, but the blinding light cast directly over her face was the only thing she could see.

"I- I don't kn-know where he is," she stuttered, grasping onto the side of her baggy shirt. Her hands, feet, and head were tied to the table, and the water dripped down her cheeks to tickle her ears and get lost in her hair.

Peter was in the same position as her on the other table, his chest moving just as fast as hers.

"No?" Graeme asked, leaning over her head so he was upside down in her view. He shrugged. "Okay."

Amara tried to shake her head to get him to stop, but nothing could be done. He pulled the towel back over her face and dumped another bucket of water on her head. The burn of water trickling down her throat and up her nose made her body try to cough and gasp for air, but there wasn't any oxygen to relieve it.

Minutes later, when she was barely clinging onto life, he finally pulled away again. Her eyes were filled with tears as she inhaled the deepest breaths of air, desperately trying to keep herself alive.

"What about now?"

"I- I barely talked to him," she said while coughing. "I don't know where he would go if he was in trouble."

Graeme rolled his eyes and clucked his tongue. "What about you, boy?"

"No" - Peter gasped for breath - "idea."

"Alright."

Amara didn't like the tone in Graeme's voice as he walked away. She had to resort to listening to what was going on. There was the scraping of something and the rolling of something else, and it sounded like he slammed something against a table. But that was all she could make out.

The leather binds were undone from her limbs and she was shoved over to sit in a chair, where she was strapped down so tightly she was losing feeling in her hands and feet. The mutation dampeners dug into her skin uncomfortably as she watched two men shove Peter into a chair opposite her and tie him up too.

"Now," Graeme murmured with anger. He fisted some of Peter's hair into one of his hands and Amara's into the other, forcing them to look at each other.

Amara's breath was ragged as her eyes trailed his face. He had lost weight. His eyes had incredible bags underneath them. His stubble was beginning to darken on his cheeks. She noticed the large patch of hair above his ear that was significantly shorter than the rest of it, but it was just as wet and sticky as the rest of his hair.

She winced as Graeme tightened his grip on her own hair.

"Take a good look at each other," Graeme growled. "You see the pretty faces you're looking at right now? Yeah. You can kiss them goodbye if you don't talk. We'll start with you talkin', sunshine."

Amara's grip on the arm rests tightened as she watched Graeme pick up a pipe wrench, and she quickly looked back at Peter. Panic instantly settled in her bones and she shook her head while tears began springing her eyes.

"No, I swear, I don't know anything, there's nothing-"

"Yeah, keep saying that," Graeme muttered, then roughly grabbed Peter's jaw so he would open his mouth.

"No, please, I promise I don't know-"

"What a nice set of teeth there, Maximoff!"

"Wait, I promise-"

"Too bad they're gonna be all mangled when we're done!"

"No!" she screamed, trying to break through the binds in her chair while tears poured down her cheeks. "That mansion was his childhood home! I don't know anywhere he would go besides that! No, I swear I don't know anything, stop!"

She continued to scream and beg for Graeme to put the wrench down, but she couldn't look away from what was happening since someone held her hair and forced her to watch. She hated the way Peter squirmed in his chair and cried out while Graeme twisted his wrist, and she screamed even louder when she saw the blood pouring out of Peter's mouth.

Peter grunted loudly and screamed until there was a final pop, and Amara watched in horror as Graeme pulled the back tooth out of his mouth to throw it on the table.

"Nice goin', champ," Graeme said with a small grin.

Peter spat his blood onto the floor before Graeme grabbed onto Peter's chin roughly to get him to look up at him, and Amara tried to wipe the tears from her face with her shoulder.

"Stay the fuck away from her," Peter mumbled, glaring up at him, which earned him a slap across the face.

"Peter," Amara whimpered. "I'm so sorry, I-"

She was cut off by Graeme grabbing her jaw just like he had done with Peter, but Peter's face showed absolute malice when she glanced down at him.

"Alright, boy. Start talking."

Her entire body trembled as the wrench locked onto her tooth, and she prepared for the pain to come.

Never, did she ever think she would be happy to see Dr. Dietrich walk into the room. And yet, when that door opened, and his tiny, fat little body waddled in with his gleeful smile, her relief crashed into her like an enormous tidal wave.

"I've done it!" Dr. Dietrich exclaimed, waving two syringes through the air. "It's finally complete!"

"Done what?" Graeme asked, but the doc only shooed his words away.

"Come, come! Get them on the table! It's time to finally get these pesky little things off their necks, eh? No more technology they'll be able to break out of!"

Amara was grabbed by the hair again and dragged out of her chair.

"Lay them face first! And knock them out too, this is very delicate and they cannot be moving."

She didn't have time to think before someone jammed something across her temple and threw her unconscious body back onto her table.

w/c: 1024

a/n: omfg i cringed so hard when i wrote this. did it hurt to read as much as it hurt to write?? please vote, comment, and share if you enjoy the story!! xx